


All's Fair

by pollitt



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsmooch, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollitt/pseuds/pollitt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little knowledge can be dangerous</p>
            </blockquote>





	All's Fair

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Maverick for her beta and read-through. A bit of silliness.

The first time had been an accident. The team had been investigating the ruins of M2N-429 when Rodney zigged while John did too and they'd collided, almost. Hands shot forward to steady and as Rodney's fingers grazed John's side time slowed. to. almost. a. stop. as though they'd ventured too close to a black hole, and in that millisecond Rodney saw something cross John's face, something he hadn't seen in a long, long time.

It gave Rodney a flutter in his chest--from his heart to his stomach--that on most occasions he'd worry was a sign of some dire disease but right then, looking at John, seeing and _knowing_, Rodney understood the feeling for what it was.

Some days later--when the feeling that had started like a tiny spark has grown to supernova--Rodney knows that it's now or never. He has to act or risk burning whole from the sheer weight of knowledge. He finds John in his room, boot clad feet crossed at that end of the bed, a comic book clenched in his hands.

"Hey," John says, looking up and setting the comic aside as Rodney returns the greeting and leans down, his hand sliding to cradle the back of John's head.

Rodney's lost count over a thousand kisses before, and although he can't place a number on the kiss being shared, he knows it, like the thousands before, is unique. It's another moment stretched wide, offering him an opportunity to touch and be touched, to glimpse through closed eyes John Sheppard laid bare, his defenses non-existent.

He pulls back slightly, unsurprised to find that John's fingers have tangled with his free hand, and John's other hand has settled, almost possessively, at the small of his back.

"Hey," John repeats, his voice lower, rougher, his top lip pinked from where Rodney's seven o'clock shadow had rubbed. Rodney feels his own lips tingle. "What was that for?"

"Consider it a preemptory apology." Rodney untangles their fingers slowly, smiling at the crease that forms at John's brow.

"For?"

"This."

Rodney reaches down, his fingers alighting over the buttons of John's shirt to his waist and over, ghosting first and then pressing at John's side.

He's ready for the movement as John folds forward, his legs and hips and shoulder and neck lifting and moving toward his middle. Rodney knows how to avoid injury as he presses again, curling his finger in a way that is familiar although not in this way and location. He even expects the exhale, the hard, loud laughter that John nearly shouts.

He's not prepared, however, for the smile that breaks across John's face sudden and unexpected, at the look of joy--pure, unadulterated joy and an almost innocence that Rodney's not sure he believes John ever had. And that breaks his heart and makes him lightheaded all at once.

"Rodney." John says his name in two syllables--the first short, almost barked, the second drawn out, like a long exhale.

"John." Rodney pulls his hand back, unable to hide the smile that has taken over his face. As simple as it is, this knowledge, this piece of John is another layer, another secret, which he's discovered. Small as it is, Rodney treasures it, makes it his own.

"Payback's a bitch."

Rodney feels John's arms wrap around his waist and in a physics-defying move he is pulled down onto the bed and is flat on his back with John leaning over him. As John's fingers dig into his thigh and the first tremors of sensation and the uncontrollable laughter bubble up, Rodney suspects he deserves it.


End file.
